Conservatory

Great hangout. Especially when St A takes over 36 taps! They have rolled through many, but if your near DwnTwn this Friday 12/20 night, stop by! As for food, there is pizza-hot chicken-pho.

Oh! The Pho place is cutting onions...time to go!


Merry Christmas, Y'all.

The Conservatory has been replaced by the Underground Hall (same thing really), so basically it's like replacing Conservatives with an Underground Liberal movement, so it's sort of like what is actually happening to the population demographic of Texas (gtfo, racists, welcome to the Purple State aka the future Blue State thx).

Sadly the Conservatory is no more. It has been replaced by the Underground Food Hall which is called Underground Food Hall, which is what I just said twice, which I find a little bit hilarious, because it's really the exact same thing as the Conservatory was, really. But I guess this is a better, more descriptive name for it, why was it a Conservatory in the first place... Houston is hardly a Conservatory-ive city.

So behold, the new and much more obvious and basic name. But that's fine, I mean changing names doesn't really change much about it, so there's no need to mourn the loss of the conservatory because in essence it still exists.

If you party here, it's an Underground Ball
If you shop here, it's an Underground Mall
If you slip here, it's an Underground Fall
But if you want food, try the Underground Hall

If you fight down here it's an Underground Shawl
If you need an app down here then Underground Install
If you speak all Texan down here, it's Underground, Y'all
But if you want food, try the Underground Hall

What

Anyway, there's plenty of good stuff down here, I especially like the salad and the Slovenian Sausage Pizza from the salad place down here. There's hot chicken (not bad), a bar, and a bunch of other goodies, about half of which I've tried so far. Definitely worth a stop if you're downtown, but honestly it doesn't drag us out to Downtown for food the way nearby Zydeco, Les Givral's, and Nara Express do.

BYO Salads: the Slovenian Sausage Pizza
Pho Fix: good Viet but more expensive than most good Viet
Luvem Leches: good Tres Leches but expensive
Bird Haus: not bad Hot Chicken, but expensive and not great
Other Stuff: plenty of choices, a wine bar, a bar bar, but none that I'm wild about

If the food choices were better it would clearly score 5.

If you use the toilet it's an Underground Stall
Watch a Mars movie here: Underground Total Recall
Pink Floyd plays down here? Underground The Wall
But if you want food, try the Underground Hall

Houston needs more cool spots like the Conservatory, an underground food hall downtown with an impressive selection of draft beers and cocktails. The one downside is that it's fairly small, not like one of the sprawling auditorium-sized establishments you'll find in Europe, but it certainly has character with nice wood and tile finishes, a shrubbed out seating area under the stairs, and a handful of fresh dining options. The beverage selection has a little something for everyone and there's usually some sort of special available. For example, for the next month, it's $4 draft beers and $6 cocktails all day on Mondays and Sundays. Yes, you read that right. Even the fancy-pants porters that will normally set you back close to $10.

The food stalls are subject to change, but have struck me as a little over-priced and inconsistent during my last few visits. My favorite meal here has been a pho-rrito from the Pho Spot, a $9 plate with tasty sliced brisket and fixings stuffed into a tortilla and served with a side of aromatic broth for dipping, along with jalapenos and lime. I wasn't expecting much but, man, it was delicious. My wife tried some ramen from Moku Bar and also was pleasantly surprised with how satisfying and hearty it was.

All in all, the Conservatory is a great spot to bring a casual date, meet up with friends or co-workers, or show out-of-towners who refuse to believe that Houston can be cool.

This place is solid 4 stars. And can easily be more. If all the eateries were open and functioning.
AND if the seating was a little better. And by better I mean quality. Some of the chairs are little shaky.

Anyways that's the "bad".

The food is rather good. But if you're interested in the BBQ get there early because they sell out fast.

Beer and wine options are pretty impressive.

Prices are reasonable.

But the atmosphere is fantastic. It's like taking a step into a different part of the country. It reminds a bit of Colorado and NYC.

Lots of fun for a date night or night out relaxing with the girls or boys.

Good times at this spot.

A food court located in Downtown Houston. Street parking and meter parking is your best options. There is a variety of food choices at this food court. There's arepas by the entrance as you walk in. Going downstairs will give you more options.

The Pho Spot is located by the stairs. There's also poke, pizza, and barbecue. Prices are more than the usual, but that's expected from a food court in downtown. One thing I like about the conservatory is the atmosphere.

There's tree vines everywhere and the decors on the staircase gives of a nice vibe. There's also plenty of tables around the area. Good for a big group of people. Food courts are always easier to grab a quick lunch or dinner.

The Conservatory is admittedly an odd name for an underground food hall/beer garden but the spot is pretty cool. You can't tell from the outside what it will be but when walking through the doors and down a large staircase you come to the foot court areas with large communal area seating across the middle and the food stands and taps in a big upside-down U shape.

Happy Hour is every night from 4 pm-6 pm which you'll find deals on food from the vendors and the beers on tap are only $4. My boyfriend and I tried 2 different beers each and we enjoyed what we got. We also tried the El Burro vendor which was delicious.

There are arcade games on the right when you walk down and some booth seating and other small tables. Once you eat the food you can help PacMan eat some more! We used the change machine to get some quarters and played a few different arcade games which was a blast.

I only give it 4 stars since it's a smaller food hall with only 5-6 vendors. However, good selection of places and nice ambiance. I'd come back if I ever find myself in Houston again.

Is it me or are most of the best places to eat in Houston are underground?

When people hear the word "conservatory," they think of a school for musical prodigies. Well, Conservatory on Prairie in Downtown Houston makes the hearts of local foodies and casual diners sing.

Descend a floor and you arrive in a food court-meets-dive bar. The environment here is chill and non-pretentious. Five eateries form a horseshoe around a small beer hall-esque dining space. Speaking of eateries, where in the world other than this cool establishment can you have poke, pho, pizza, and BBQ without venturing a few feet? I'll wait.

I was in the mood for poke so I was determined to come here for lunch. Well, there I was the second in line at Moku Bar. I want to thank Jeremy for recommending I try the HTX. I don't know for sure if poke is supposed to be spicy, but I sure dug the slight burst of heat in my dish. I believe in love at first sight, and I'm really feeling poke after my initial-- for lack of a better word -- stab at it.

Why 5 stars? Because we need one of these in every city.

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Food halls are one of my favorite trends of the last several years. Putting a bunch of awesome local vendors in one spot, with a bunch of communal seating - what's not to love?!

I love the layout of this particular hall. It's really neat that it's underground, which gives it kind of a bunker-like feel. I don't know if this is a daily thing, but I noticed that they were exclusively playing South Park Mexican songs. While SPM turned out to be an awful person, it did bring out some nostalgiac memories from listening to Houston hip hop in high school.

We enjoyed some amazing poke from Moku Bar and I loved being able to order a wine flight from the wine bar. I've never seen a wine flight available somewhere before, so that was really neat. Then again, I'm not that classy, so maybe wine flights are a normal thing that I just wasn't aware of.

Speaking of the wine, the bartender let us know that the Conservatory was formerly the Mercury Room, which was one of those clubs I heard them constantly promoting on the radio when I was younger. Who knew that all those years later, I'd finally make it to the Mercury Room, but to eat poke and drink chardonnay.

The Conservatory is awesome. If places like this were around when I lived in Houston, I may not have been in such a rush to move away!

This beer garden/food court is a hidden gem in downtown. It's not very crowded so it has a much more relaxed environment. There are a number of food vendors... bbq, Vietnamese, pizza, etc. I've tried El Burro, which was the bbq place. I had the pork tacos which were good.

The main draw of this place is the beer garden. They have a wonderful selection of local beers on tap! I've been here a few times and noticed that the beers do rotate which is nice. I'm personally a fan of Spindle Tap's Houston Haze, which is a wonderfully hazy IPA.

They also have a great happy hour! $4 on all beer selections!

This is a great place to stop for a quick bite to eat before going out downtown for drinks. This place has a food court feel, but with a beer/cocktail bar and a wine bar for drinks. If you are trying not to spend a lot of money, I recommend only getting something to eat from here and save your money for drinks elsewhere afterwards. My beer cost as much as my Poke rice bowl, $10!!

The Poke rice bowl tasted amazing. Nice and fresh with lots of taste.

Most of the restaurants are Asian themed, which I love!!!

There was a little pizzeria that my wife enjoyed, decent price for a personal pizza.

Only thing that really bothered us is the drinks were way overpriced. The wine bar on the website boasts $5, $6, and $7 wines, when in reality they're about $9-$11 per glass. My wife ordered the cheapest one on their menu and of course they were out of it, so she had to spend more on an "ok" glass of wine.

Overall a cool place to check out once or twice for eats, but skip the drinks at this spot.